As the industry recognizes the benefits of field reprogrammability for systems,
the need for a cost effective, easy to update non-volatile memory arises. To
fill this role, Flash memory devices have shown great promise to become the
memory of choice. But, as with the early days of EPROM and EEPROM devices,
there is much confusion about what features and voltages the ideal Flash memory
device should contain. The ideal Flash device provides the designer the cleanest hardware implementation,requiring the fewest number of external
components. In addition the device should provide the software designer
with the highest level of flexibility, yet very simple and straightforward commands for programming. Atmel has developed their Flash memories with these ideas in mind.